Marathon Oil generates $68m from Kinsale

Marathon Oil generated $68 million (€57.3 million) in sales from the Kinsale gas field last year, and the US company now believes that the well will remain in production until 2014.

The well generated gas sales totalling $70 million last year,according to London-listed exploration company Petroceltic. Marathon Oil, its operator and biggest shareholder, took an estimated $68 million of the total sales. Its other shareholder, Statoil, would have received about $1.5 million.

Petroceltic, which has a small royalty in the field, received about $500,000. The company told its shareholders at its annual general meeting yesterday that Marathon has also extended the field's projected lifespan to 2014.

Marathon discovered the Kinsale reserves almost 30 years ago, and it became the main supplier to Bord Gáis Éireann. The field became the State's primary source of natural gas.

Following further discoveries in the region in the mid-1990s, it was believed that it could secure supply until 2015. However, increased commercial and industrial demand forced a change in these predictions. Subsequent reports suggested the Kinsale field would stop producing as early as 2005.

Cork-based Marathon Oil is a subsidiary of US giant Marathon Oil Corporation, which last year had pre-tax profits of $1.5 billion on the back of a $40 billion turnover. It has a share in the Corrib field and has been involved in further exploration in the Porcupine Basin off the Kerry coast and in the Celtic Sea.

Petroceltic shareholders yesterday heard that the company believes the three Celtic Sea blocks, in which it has a 38 per cent interest, could hold close to half the reserves of the Kinsale field. The company's partner in the blocks, known as the Old Head of Kinsale Field, is Island Petroleum.

Petroceltic executive chairman Mr Brian Cusack said its other main interest, the Sidi Toui oil prospect in Tunisia, could have the potential to produce 400 million barrels of crude oil. It expects to begin drilling there in the second half of the year.

Shareholders approved proposals at the meeting that would give the company $15 million in reserves to develop both projects.